


(With Benefits)

by Sheeana



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-22 15:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9614594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: Dick wasn't sure if it was going to be a thing or not.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mementomoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mementomoe/gifts).



Dick was standing on Wally and Artemis's doorstep, waiting in the sticky, humid, too-warm air of a summer night.

He'd been standing there for awhile now. He didn't want to call it _mustering his courage_ , but he didn't know what else to call it, either. The last time he'd visited, "game night" had somehow turned into "falling into bed together night" and so, when they'd invited him back a week later for movie night, he was (understandably, he thought) not really sure where they stood or even what words actually meant anymore. It wasn't that he was nervous. They were his best friends. It was more that he wasn't sure what he should expect when he walked through their door.

More specifically, he wasn't sure if it was going to be a _thing_ or not.

But the door opened like it usually did, and Artemis peeked out like she usually did, and then she broke into a grin - like she usually did. Whatever tension was lingering in his shoulders faded almost instantly. He smiled at her and reached up to push his damp hair out of his eyes. The absurd amount of time he'd spent grooming it had all amounted to naught, in the end. Defeated by the weather.

"Hey," said Artemis, holding the door for him. "Come inside. We have air conditioning."

"Hey, Artemis. I brought, uh, this," he said, holding up a shopping bag with snacks in it. He'd considered other things - flowers or wine or something equally cheesy and cliche - but they had said "movie night", so he'd figured he should take them at their word. It wasn't like snacks couldn't come in handy either way. He handed the bag to her and then stepped inside, comfortable enough in their home that he didn't really feel like a guest anymore. More like a student who came home to do his laundry on weekends (and given their current, respective occupations, that thought had him snorting to himself).

"What's so funny?" Artemis asked, eyebrows raised.

"Nothing. Where's Wally?"

"In the living room. We made popcorn. You go ahead, I'll grab it," she said. "Don't get too comfortable without me," she called over her shoulder, on the way to the kitchen.

Dick hopped neatly over the back of their couch to join Wally, who slid over automatically and without comment to make room for him. He didn't move very far, though, as if he just couldn't be bothered. Dick lifted one leg onto the couch and rested his chin on his knee before he glanced over at Wally and noticed the dull, glazed-over look on his face.

"Homework?" he asked, nodding at the papers strewn all over the coffee table. Most of them were bent or crumpled, and a few were scattered on the floor as if someone had tossed them there in disgust.

"Quantum mechanics." Wally grimaced. "You know, sometimes I really, really want to tell my profs about the speed force. It would totally blow their minds."

"But?"

"But it's probably not a great idea for me to go around advertising that I was Kid Flash if, you know, I'm trying to be an ordinary, plain-old civilian now. Most of the time. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna start walking around like normal _slow_ people or anything. No offense."

"None taken. Some of us refrained from experimenting with dangerous chemicals when we were kids." No matter how many years passed, the past tense of Wally's codename would probably always strike Dick as strange. He'd come to terms with it, but it was kind of like how Wally kept calling him "Rob". Some habits died hard, and thinking of them as Kid Flash and Artemis was one of them.

Wally sighed and let himself go slack against Dick's side, his chin resting on Dick's shoulder. "Whatever, I guess. Maybe in grad school I can tell everyone about my adventures in physics."

" _Doctor_ Wally West," Dick teased, warm and affectionate. He moved to accommodate Wally against his side, shifting so that he could lean comfortably against him.

Wally nudged him in the side. " _Captain_ Nightwing."

"Ha, ha."

Leaving the team might have changed how they spent their evenings, but it hadn't done a thing to their friendship or their place in his life. In a way, they were more part of it now than ever. He still remembered wearing his sunglasses indoors in case someone guessed his secret identity and used him to get to Batman. Idly, he reached up and touched the place where he would have pushed the glasses up on his nose. He would never consider hiding himself from either of them anymore.

It would have been so, so easy to fall into isolation, after Wally left the team and he left Gotham. An orphan striking out on his own. But Wally and Artemis had seemed determined not to _let_ him be isolated. They called, they texted, they Skyped, they invited him over for dinner or to watch a movie or just to hang out. They asked him to fix things around their apartment even though he knew they were both capable of doing it themselves. And it made sense, it felt right, it felt normal, so he never said anything. Wally was his oldest friend, the person he trusted with all his secrets. Artemis was every bit as important. He'd learned to trust her with his life. Even with his identity. They were his partners, whether they were on the team or not.

But at some point, something pretty monumental (and there was a word he never got to use) had begun to shift between them. He'd started to look forward to hearing them laugh during their Skype sessions a little too much. Teasing had taken on an electric sort of charge. One-armed hugs had turned into leaning casually against each other. His eyes had started to linger on the kisses they shared shamelessly in front of him. And then game night had turned into desperately pressing kisses to Artemis's shoulder as Wally stumbled around the room using his speed to get out of his clothes, which was about as monumental as anything that happened to Dick - and that was saying something for a guy who had spent his formative years fighting crime on the streets of Gotham.

"Earth to Dick Grayson," Wally said, nudging him again. He waved his hand in front of Dick's face. "You're thinking too hard. Stop it. Look, the popcorn's here. You know what I always say, food is the remedy to all ills."

"You've literally never said that before, Wally," said Artemis fondly, as she ruffled his hair with one hand while she balanced the popcorn bowl in the other. 

"Maybe not, but it _sounds_ like something I'd say."

She joined them the same way Dick had - vaulting herself gracefully over the back of the couch - and deposited the bowl right into his lap, which Wally immediately reached over and dug into. Dick didn't miss the way she gave Wally's shoulder a squeeze as she passed, or the way she was letting herself lean against Dick's side, mirroring Wally almost perfectly. He did hiss lightly when she accidentally put pressure on a fresh bruise on his wrist.

"Sore?" Wally asked, muffled around a mouthful of popcorn but sympathetic. They'd all had their own share of mission-related injuries before they left. Well, Artemis had, anyway. Wally healed faster than normal, slow people.

"It's fine. Took a hard fall off my bike last night." He flexed his wrist, just to show them that he could. "At least it's not broken."

Artemis reached over anyway and took his wrist into her hands. He couldn't stop the soft (slightly embarrassing) gasp that escaped his lips when her fingertips slid down under his sleeve and brushed along his wrist. It wasn't related to pain.

"I don't think it's too serious. Looks like you're going to live, Nightwing," she said dryly, smirking, as she dropped his hand back into his lap.

"Thanks," he muttered. "... Artemis."

"Some of us never needed to hide behind fancy codenames."

" _Some_ of you didn't grow up with Batman hovering over your shoulder."

"Because Sportsmaster is so much better?" she said skeptically.

After he gave her a gentle, playful shove, they all settled in to watch the movie, close enough for him to feel warmth radiating from them but not quite leaning against him anymore. His hand twitched, itching to _do something_ , but he contented himself with watching Artemis instead of the screen, the way her lips quirked sometimes, the way she twirled the end of her ponytail around her finger without seeming to realize that she was doing it. Every so often, Wally's hand snuck over to grab a handful of popcorn and stuff it unceremoniously into his mouth. It was a testament to how much he loved Wally that the sound of crunching did absolutely nothing to dampen the mood.

Ten minutes later, he gave himself a quick reality check: he was still seated on the couch holding a bowl of popcorn in his lap, Artemis on one side and Wally on the other, and feeling somehow vaguely disoriented and satisfied at the same time.

The way they were bracketing him on the couch was both familiar and fairly new, but he didn't say anything about it. He didn't say anything when Wally's arm came up to rest along the back of the cushions like they were on a date at the movie theater, either. He just leaned back into it.

They were quiet, ostensibly (another word he wished he got to use more) absorbed in what was happening on the screen, but the only thing Dick could think about was much closer and more immediate. About the way he'd started idly brushing his thumb back and forth across Artemis's wrist, for one thing. Or the way Wally had crept closer and closer, until he was pressed up against Dick's side again and Dick could feel him shaking every time he laughed at a joke.

And then Wally leaned over and casually dropped a kiss onto his mouth, and he knew with laser-precise certainty that this was definitely, definitely going to be a _thing_. It might even be whatever was above things - something more serious and dignified than mere _things_. But he was getting ahead of himself. Right now, he wanted to be in this moment, in this spot, with these people. His hand came up to grip and then massage the back of Wally's neck with his fingers, his body relaxing as he surrendered to the way Wally was swiftly deepening what had started as a simple, casual gesture of affection.

It was a thing. So he did what he did best - he let go, let himself fall, and hoped that there would be a safety net to catch him at the bottom. And when he felt the warm weight of Artemis's hand resting over his knee, squeezing gently, he knew they would never let him hit the ground.


End file.
